Life After Hayate
by NGTM-R
Summary: On a cold day, Nanoha was supposed to have been injured. She wasn't. Hayate was there instead, and she was killed. And with her dying breath, she gave the Wolkenritter and the Book to another, that they might live on. Chrono wasn't ready for this...
1. The Cold Outside

Hayate died. The Wolkenritter did not. With her dying breath, she gave them to another so they would live on. Chrono Harlaown, just turned 17, is about to receive the most precious gift of his life.

Now he has to survive it.

**Life After Hayate**

It was the day he turned seventeen.

Chrono didn't celebrate. There was work to be doing. The _Shaula _was responding, along with other ships, to a developing situation on an administrated world. Chrono waved his arm forward, and mentally cursed the crunch of armored boots on the snow. "Move up!"

A half-dozen other black-longcoated mages followed him forward. He could hear the sounds of combat, somewhere ahead, but the ruins made it difficult to judge distances. Something had rendered most of the battle area blind for teleport or he would already be in the thick of it.

"Contact!" Chrono called, spotting a four-legged robot scuttling ahead of him.

"**Stinger Snipe.**" S2U added. The attack dissipated before making contact, and he remembered a recent conversation with Hayate about the possibility of anti-magilink fields being used in combat against Bureau troops. That those would appear, here, now, when Hayate had called for backup...

Whatever its powers, the drone couldn't manage to deal with the combined fire of the rest of his team. Chrono swept past the smoldering wreck. _Hayate. Status?_

_Holding them for now!_ Hayate's mental voice came back. Chrono heard the crunch of movement in the snow ahead of himself and brought S2U to a guard position instinctively. A moment later another of the drones flickered into existence in front of him. It raised its arms to attack.

Too slow. "**Stinger Ray.**" S2U announced, and the drone was blasted back by a dozen strikes to its front carapace, cracking its armor and doing fatal damage to its power system. Chrono didn't bother to break stride. _Hayate, they can cloak._

No response. Chrono's expression of anger blanked out, and he picked up his pace. He entered a clear space in the ruins and spotted human shapes on the other side through blowing snow, a localized blizzard. Wind spells. Probably Shamal.

Four shapes. Not five. "Shamal! Drop the wind!" He hoped the Wolkenritter would recognize his voice; he didn't have any good way of identifying himself as a friendly. Nobody had realized they'd need to. His team, he noted with some gratification, was only a step behind him.

More drones were in the square, cylindrical things. He heard metal tearing through metal with a shriek and an enraged yell from what could only be Vita, followed by several packet attacks blasting through nearby drones. It wasn't a very smart thing to do, but he advanced at a run.

Signum appeared from the howling blizzard in front of him, her sword coming down in an arc that might have removed his head had she not stopped it. "Harlaown, Hayate is injured." She spared him not another word, turning to strike down another drone, her blade cutting through it with the same screech.

Chrono knelt next to Hayate a moment later. She was badly injured, a wound straight from back to front in her chest, bleeding profusely. He swore softly and tried to stabilize her as best he could, pausing to press the bead in his ear in further. "I have a critical case here! If you drag along a meter of dirt then you can complain about the cleanup once she's safe! Lock on to my signal and teleport!"

"Ten seconds Hayate." He looked up and thrust his Device out at another drone, one of the ones with legs. "**Stinger Ray,**" S2U added. If the drone had anything to add to the conversation, it was never going to get the chance. It went off like a firework.

Rein dropped out of unison and flew over to him as Hayate faded out. He also noted the Book of the Night Sky lying on the ground unattended, and picked it up for safekeeping. Another cry, male, told him that one of his team was injured as well.

"Shamal, _drop the blizzard!_ I need to be able to see." A moment later the Wolkenritter complied. Chrono smiled grimly. There were twenty-five drones, two of them legged models and the rest the cylindrical ones, still active on the field.

"**Struggle Bind.**" The binds wrapped around one of the ones with legs. He wanted that camouflage system intact. "Put the rest in the ground!" Chrono ordered, a task which both his team and the Wolkenritter went to with a will, But they teleported, even the one he'd bound and the ones that were damaged or destroyed. That meant an external source.

"_Shaula_, Harlaown, they just teleported. You have a track?" Chrono's expression turned incredulous. "What the hell do you mean, you had to shut down everything due to a cyberwarfare attack?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shamal, only a couple of meters away, start to totter. He took two steps and managed to catch her before she fell. Vita, behind him, had burst into tears. And he realized that...

His eyes widened. His pupils shrank. For one endless, hideous moment he was assaulted by emotions that were not his own, anger and despair that would have crushed him beyond recognition. Then he managed to cut it off.

Chrono had felt what the Wolkenritter had felt. That meant he'd connected with the Book in his hand. That meant that Hayate was...

He almost let go of Shamal. Only the certain knowledge she would have fallen face-first into the snow without his arm supporting her kept him from doing it. Even so, he actually let go of S2U, breaking the first rule he'd learned in training about never letting go of your weapon.

Chrono Harlaown, for the first time in his life, wept openly.


	2. Of Things Unseen

**Of Things Unseen**

"You're a family." Chrono said softly. "And I'm just some guy who picked up the Book first. You owe me nothing." He held up a hand to stop the Wolkenritter replying. He hadn't let them get in a word since they'd been on the ground, because otherwise they'd start calling him Master or something and he couldn't handle that right now. "That's the way it is as of this moment. We'll discuss this further later. For now..." He grimaced. "I have to stop Nanoha killing anyone."

It wasn't as idle a threat as Chrono would have liked. Nanoha Takamachi's emotions ran hot and her opinion on the use of excessive force was "just a little bit more." She had been a close friend of Hayate.

"Security alert. Combat mages to Deck Two accommodations." Chrono's grimace got worse. Was he already too late on this? He shot Signum a look that told her to handle things here as the senior Wolkenritter and turned, heading up to the second deck of the ship.

It was to his surprise that he discovered not Nanoha, but his own adoptive sister Fate, holding a Ground Forces officer at Device point. Nanoha actually appeared to be trying to subtly restrain Fate. Chrono advanced towards them slowly. "Fate, what's going on?"

"I casually asked if the Captain knew she was aboard. She said no." Fate replied. "She was looting Hayate's quarters, to boot."

The captain of a starship had a right, laid out in Bureau regulation and going back in tradition to well before starships, to know of _anyone_ aboard their ship at any time. For someone to come aboard ship without the captain's knowledge was not only a serious breach of protocol, it implied a security failure that would see someone face a court-martial.

Chrono looked the woman, who was at least his age and probably older, over again. She seemed angry rather than worried, despite the crackle of Bardiche's energy blade two millimeters from her throat. Her uniform was the blue-and-blue of Ground Forces Headquarters, but her rank tabs said she was a lieutenant. That explained why she hadn't known better than to give the answer she did about whether the Captain knew she was aboard.

"Fate," Chrono said softly, "give her room to swallow, would you?" Though he phrased it as a request, they both knew it wasn't. Fate drew Bardiche back a few more millimeters. "You're not in Hayate Yagami's chain of command and you don't appear to be with Graves Reg. That rules out any good reason to be going through her things. Name and service number."

"Auris Gaiz. Zero six nine four eight three four," the woman replied.

Chrono shook his head. "Your father won't like this." He reached up and tapped the communications bead in his ear. "Harlaown here. Are we supposed to have an Auris Gaiz aboard?" He listened to the answer and it made him frown. "She was going through Lieutenant Yagami's personal effects. She's currently in custody." Another pause, this one much shorter. "Understood." He tapped the earpiece again. "Lieutenant. You have until a Mage Team arrives to come up with a good explanation for why you were here and what you were doing. Failing that, you'll be escorted to the brig and remain a guest of the navy's penal system until your father pulls enough strings to get you out."

Auris Gaiz did not offer an explanation, and instead went to the brig as promised. Chrono entrusted Fate and Nanoha with Hayate's belongings, something they took with surprising solemnity considering they were...still only 12. Chrono shook his head. He'd at least been 13 when he'd had to deal with this kind of responsibility. Not much, but still better.

Responsibility. He had to fight off a shudder. He had a new one. He couldn't put this conversation off any longer. Saint Kaiser knew he wanted to...

* * *

"What do we do? Say?" Vita asked.

"The forms must be observed. He is master of the Book now." Signum replied. "We have no real choice, and you know it."

"You're correct," Zafira rumbled, in his wolf form. "But did you notice he wouldn't let us get a word in?"

"Old officer's trick. Not letting us dwell..." Signum's voice failed her. She couldn't say aloud what she'd meant to. "Dwell on it," she finished lamely.

"Maybe," the wolf replied. "But the look in his eyes when we opened our mouths seemed a little panicky to me."

"He's coming." Vita added dully.

The Wolkenritter all dropped to one knee the moment Chrono entered the compartment, to his horror. Then he noted that Zafira hadn't because he was in his wolf form and had to switch back, and took advantage of it. "On your feet." Chrono said quickly. "And if any of you call me master I swear I'll throw myself out an airlock. Don't change out of your Barrier Jackets either."

"Each," Signum was careful not to say _master_, "owner," but Chrono winced anyways, "has decided what we wear."

"Those are Hayate's personal gift to you. It would be immensely disrespectful of me to her, and to you, to take them away." Chrono replied softly. "I picked up the Book first, that's all-"

"No." Rein replied. "Hayate meant it to go to you. She could have given it to anyone. The Book can be teleported to anywhere, and I could have carried it with me to find anyone she asked. She wanted it to be you, because you were responsible, a good person, and wouldn't get carried away with emotion like some others she might have given it to."

Chrono's expression betrayed none of his internal horror. Hayate had thought he was ready for _this_, to command demigods, immortal and near-perfect warriors...and very attractive ones...what was she thinking? "All right then. Doesn't change that much. Still responsible." Chrono wasn't sure if he was trying to convince the Wolkenritter, or himself, with that statement.

"You're family. I'm not. Even without Hayate you have existing assignments-"

"No." Signum replied. She was definite. "We are knights of Belka, bound to your service and by our honor. If you were to be injured or killed, and we had not shed a drop of blood in your defense," Chrono became aware that both Signum and Vita sported bandages, "we would be forever disgraced. Our duty was all we had for millenia. Do not deny us it now."

"We have fought and bled in the defense of every owner we have ever had." Zafira added. "Do you truly believe we would allow that to change when we serve those who are worthy, after having done so for hundreds who were not? You may order us away, Chrono, but that will be the only way."

Chrono just about had a meltdown right there, visibly struggling for a response right in front of the Wolkenritter. Though to his credit, they weren't sure why. Finally, he regained his composure. "I'm not going to do that. And for future reference, unless I specifically state I am giving you you an order as the Book's owner, then it is either a suggestion or if the situation is appropriate, an order from me as an officer."

Chrono sighed heavily. "Nanoha and Fate are holding Hayate's personal effects for safekeeping. Those, by law, now belong to you. You should go get them. Someone already tried to go through them once, but Fate stopped them."

"Vita and I will handle it." Signum replied. "And our things?"

"How close is your tour on the _Mirach_ to ending?" Chrono asked carefully.

"A week. Most of it transit time to Headquarters. This was probably our last deployment." Zafira replied.

Chrono nodded slowly, an unpleasant suspicion forming in his mind. "Right. Signum. Get the Wolkenritter's things too. I'll work out the transfer papers. I take it that means that Zafira and Shamal will be staying with me?"

"Of course." Shamal said, as though it was the most natural thing in the world for a woman of her age and attractiveness to spend time with a seventeen-year-old male. "We'll start drafting our reports as well."

Chrono paused to rub his face with his hand. "Don't bother yet. Write up the descriptions only. Hayate was Headquarters Branch. They'll stage a full investigation." Headquarters Branch was notorious for going to any length to avenge or recover a lost mage. "Go to it."

Zafira and Shamal approached him, while Signum and Vita headed past towards the accommodations. Chrono gave Zafira a long glance. "Thank you. And curse you."

Zafira managed the faintest hint of a grin. "You noticed I deliberately gave you time to stop us. And that I deliberately derailed you. That makes me feel a little better."

Chrono ran his hand over his face again. "Why, Zafira?"

"Because I am supposed to protect you from _everyone_. That doesn't just mean outsiders. It also means I have to protect you from the Wolkenritter. And from yourself." Zafira said amicably. "Thankfully you're sane and well-adjusted, so it won't be too troublesome."

Chrono fought very hard not to display his horror. From the expression on Zafira's face, he hadn't quite managed it. He'd inherited ten thousand years of their warrior skills, sure, he'd know that going in. But he'd also inherited ten thousand years of everything else, including lying and manipulation and...oh Kaiser, what if they knew how to be seductive? He should send them away right now, while he still had a chance.

Vita had usually shared a double-occupancy room with Hayate, but that wasn't really an option with a male, people would talk, so he'd have to have one of the adult Wolkenritter and... Chrono took a deep breath, trying once again to exorcise incipient panic. Hayate had thought he could do this. Hayate had been _certain_ he could do this.

She had been his friend for years. In all that time, Hayate made but one request of him, her last request to anyone. He would rather shove S2U against his chin and call his most powerful attack than fail her now.

Zafira watched Chrono's edgy nervousness fade away suddenly, replaced by a cool, calculating certainty, and realized that for the first time he was getting a good look at the man Chrono was when he fought. Chrono's voice was controlled and decisive. "It's a privilege, Zafira. Don't abuse it."

"Absolutely not," the wolfman agreed.

"We've got another week of active deployment on the Shaula and then transit time to Headquarters. After that...we'll need to go back to Mid. I don't think we'll get leave." Chrono sighed. "We'll figure out about who's moving when we get there."

* * *

"I think we were insulted." Vita observed to Signum.

"No," the senior Wolkenritter demurred. "We were complimented. Chrono was horrified to own us."

"See? Insulted." Vita shot back.

"Vita, if that were true, he would have ordered us away. Instead he limited his ability to give us orders." Signum's tone was soft, but corrective, as if lecturing a student. "Chrono is horrified to own us because he cannot conceive of there being any good in owning a _person_."

Vita's mouth worked for several seconds before she managed to speak. "He...I'm an idiot. I'm a terrible, complete idiot." It was just like that moment where Hayate had started talking to them about clothes, when they realized that their new mistress either did not know or did not care that she commanded four of the universe's deadliest and who had surprisingly little in common with the average human despite appearances.

Only Chrono knew, had always known. They'd even killed his father, which was a reason to revoke one's membership to the class of person if ever such a thing existed. Signum was right. It was a compliment.


	3. The Cold Inside the Soul

The Wolkenritter are Hayate's children. Because she likes someone doesn't mean she thinks they're the right person to take care of her children; nor would she want to place the burden on someone whom it would weigh too heavily on.

Nanoha and Fate are currently twelve, have troublesome personality traits (Fate's difficulties with affection, Nanoha's aggressiveness), and adding five more wheels to the Nanoha/Fate relationship isn't doing them any favors. Arisa and Suzuka are not mages and removing the Wolkenritter from a mage environment and the ability to practice their greatest skills isn't just a waste, it's a hardship: fighting for the Bureau helps them feel they're atoning for previous crimes in a way life on Earth won't. Most of the other cast members by StrikerS (chronologically we haven't even reached the epilogue for A's) aren't even known to Hayate yet. Yuuno has a large and difficult and _non-combat_ job (see comment on Arisa and Suzuka) that consumes most of his time and attention.

So we're really down to just Chrono: combat mage, hypercompetent, strong sense of duty, older, proven responsible, and with his relationship with his adopted sister Fate, proven able to take in and treat as family people from outside his life even if he once fought them. Which is really the killer qualification; nobody else has shown quite that much maturity and forgiveness yet.

**The Cold Inside The Soul**

Chrono arrived at Headquarters expecting an investigatory team from Headquarters to be waiting for him; a couple of Enforcers, some staff, probably a Brigadier General or a senior naval Captain. Instead, only his mother and his sister were there to greet him.

Something was grossly wrong. He knew it. He could feel it in his bones. The attack on Hayate, on her last deployment, in a way she'd expressed concern to him as one officer to another. It was too coincidental. And very few conventional forms of attacking Hayate Yagami and her knights would have worked. Present Hayate with enough bodies to beat the Wolkenritter and she would never have stood and fought. AMF to degrade Klarer Wind and Shamal's detection ability. Infiltrate cloaked assassin. It was too perfect. Too planned.

And if the attack on Hayate had been tailored to kill her, it was not a random incident. It was a targeted assassination. And that meant a lot of bad, bad things. The fact that the investigation he'd expected hadn't materialized compounded them.

"Mother." His nod was curt; Chrono was still on duty for the next ten minutes.

"I've made arrangements for them to stay with us, if you want." Lindy Harlaown replied. Fate looked hopeful about it; she was friends with Signum. The Harlaown estate on Midchilda was suitably impressive for a family that had a three-generation tradition of ascending to flag rank and housing another four people would not present a serious challenge.

Chrono glanced over to Zafira. Signum was the most senior of them by rank and when it came to matters related to that, but Chrono had grown to trust Zafira more on issues related to the personal dynamics of the group...or Zafira scared him less than the others.

The wolfman nodded. Going back to the house, Hayate's house, now...too painful. Too many memories. The Wolkenritter were still fragile emotionally and would be for some time. Chrono nodded in turn to his mother. "That would probably be best."

It hadn't been hard at all to get the Wolkenritter transferred. They weren't really covered under the Bureau's regulations, but familiars were, and there were mechanisms to deal with familiars who were willed to others when their original owners died. The paperwork part had been relatively painless. It helped that Rein appeared to genuinely enjoy doing it, which left Chrono at a loss to explain. He didn't really mind the holowork to file his reports, but the Unison Device approached such things as joyous experiences.

Maybe the little Unison Device had snapped, but Chrono didn't know who to ask to confirm or deny that, and finding out probably involved asking Rein herself. Asking someone who was qualified to say they were crazy was an obviously bad idea. For now, he just let it slide with the justification that it wasn't unstable behavior if you could predict it and nobody got threatened.

"I'll want to make an appointment with Muhammed." Chrono added to his mother. "Talk to him about some of this."

To her credit, Lindy Harlaown reacted as if her son was talking about a therapist, rather than the head of Naval Counterintelligence. "That can be arranged. I'll have someone handle the moving too."

"Thank you," Shamal put in.

* * *

Shamal was up early the next day. She usually was. It was normally her job to...she froze. Not anymore. She didn't have to make breakfast for anyone anymore. Still, she dressed and headed downstairs for the lack of anything better to do.

Chrono, she found, was cooking breakfast. Scrambled eggs, actually, which surprised her though it shouldn't have. Hayate had, of course, cooked mostly Japanese food. It was what she knew. Chrono apparently had different tastes or just different knowledge. "You don't have to do that-"

"Rein warned me." Chrono replied.

Shamal actually blushed and hung her head. "I see."

Chrono felt like he'd kicked a puppy. A very attractive puppy-_shut up!_ he told himself viciously. "Didn't she ever have time to work with you on this?" Don't mention Hayate by name. He'd learned that quickly. Vita was over crying at the mention of Hayate, but Vita had only done it a couple times. Shamal had just started, and there were few things Chrono was less prepared to deal with than a beautiful woman he was responsible for reducing to tears.

"No." Shamal said softly. "Or at least not enough."

"Next time we get leave." Chrono said. "Things now are a little too screwed up. I don't know what I'll have to deal with." He kept hoping that investigative team from Headquarters Branch would show up. He kept hoping that things weren't as bad as they seemed. He also kept hoping the Wolkenritter weren't noticing the things he had.

His mother was next along with Rein, then his sister and Vita, chatting amicably. The two actually got on well, probably because Fate treated Vita as an equal. Finally Zafira and Signum. Chrono hadn't judged it well enough for everyone to have a portion and ended up making himself toast.

Breakfast, like dinner the night before, was a somewhat guarded affair. Some people got along with each other; Lindy with Signum, Zafira and Chrono, Fate and Vita or Fate and Signum but not both at once. But in a group they were mostly quiet. They only showed real signs of life after the meal broke up.

Chrono hoped it didn't stay like this. His family, his mother and Fate, they were important to him, and he didn't yet think of the Wolkenritter in the same way. He was responsible to and for them, but they weren't family.

Yet? Chrono considered that. It was...possible, certainly. But he wasn't sure he really wanted to go there. Aside from the parts of him that were seventeen causing issues...Hayate had been a special circumstance in so many ways. She had wanted a family, been desperately alone. He wasn't.

The Wolkenritter had several times expressed surprise that he kept himself continuously separated from their link to each other via the Book. The truth was that Chrono doubted anyone but Hayate would have stayed connected. Thoughts and feelings that were not his own, constantly? The invasion of his privacy, the confusion...Hayate, so alone, had welcomed the enforced closeness. Chrono could come up with a half-dozen reasons why he didn't, most of them having to do with being seventeen, and that was without trying. The more he thought about it, the more reasons he came up with why he didn't want to. It would doubtless be a marvelous tool for coordination in combat, but beyond that, Chrono simply didn't want to deal with it.

"We've been in pretty deep before," Zafira's voice said next to him, "but not quite so deep as your thoughts now, Chrono."

The young man sighed and drew himself up. "I am thinking that I am not Hayate. She was special. Perfect for you, all of you, in ways I'm only just now starting to realize. I'm not Hayate. And I can't be Hayate for you. Even if I tried, it would destroy me." He closed his eyes a moment and sagged against the wall. "Which is another way I'm not able to be Hayate. She grew up crippled, but she never doubted for a moment that all her dreams would come true. Then they did, and after that there was no stopping her. Everything would work out well because she made it. I'm not that strong, Zafira."

"You have your own strengths," the wolfman replied. Chrono realized, belatedly, that though Zafira usually preferred his wolf form in Hayate's company, in Chrono's he seemed to prefer his human one. "Hayate and many others were and are aware of them. Hayate had faith. You have a mind that cuts through problems as well as Signum's blade cuts anything else. You will not be Hayate, but you will find a way."

Chrono's lips twisted into a half-grin, only touching one side of his face. "Perhaps. But it wouldn't be very Chrono of me to have faith in that."

The wolfman clapped him on the shoulder. "No, it wouldn't. What's planned for today?"

"I have a man to see about my nasty suspicious mind. And you're welcome to come along, but I need your assurances that the others will not find out." He glanced down the hall. "That goes for you too, Rein. You'd better come along too."

Zafira noted, again, that Chrono was still refusing to give them orders as their master. Actually, it didn't seem to _occur to him_ to give orders as their master. "Can't let you go alone or even just with Rein. Consider them given."

* * *

"Sir." Chrono saluted. Rein copied him, but Zafira did not. The wolf was dressed in his old uniform, the brown-and-dark-brown Headquarters formals. He hadn't yet gotten a Navy uniform. Rein had simply conjured up a match for Chrono's Barrier Jacket as a working uniform.

The man returned the salute. "At ease, Harlaown. I'd tell you to be at ease as well, Zafira, but that would require major reworking of your core program, wouldn't it?"

"Yes sir," the wolfman replied. Was it possible for the head of Naval Counterintelligence _not_ to look sinister? The man's appearance was just a little exotic, with his skin tone a trifle too dark to be Belkan or Midchildan, but it was his reputation that most remembered him by; the man who'd freed the Navy from having to rely on Ground Forces for its intelligence and counterintelligence needs; devious and incorruptible and everywhere at once knowing everything there was to know. He was the sort of person who drove the enemies of the Bureau to check their closets and under their beds, the literal boogeyman.

Zafira didn't think that Muhammad al-Faddil was a threat to Chrono. But he was still a dangerous man, regardless of whether he was currently being dangerous to anyone in particular. It was Zafira's sworn duty to defend Chrono from just such people.

"Sir," Chrono began, "I have concerns that I must express to you regarding recent events."

"Hayate Yagami's death." Muhammad replied. "I read the report she wrote about AMF attacks recently."

"Then you are aware, sir, that she was killed by a similar attack." Chrono said.

Something sparked in Muhammad's eyes. "I was not." He called up a file in hologram form. "The official mission report does not mention it."

Rein stared at the report, reading it backwards through the hologram, then after a moment called up her own hologram. "That's not the report that was filed. It says there was an investigation..."

"There wasn't." Chrono said softly. "I kept waiting for them to contact me or the Wolkenritter."

Now Muhammad was looking very dangerous, his dark brown eyes flashing. "You have copies of the original report?" He pushed a button on his desk, which set up an almost subsonic hum that had Zafira's ears twitching in annoyance.

Rein shot one over to him quickly, reproducing it in about ten seconds from memory. Chrono tried hard not to stare at the Unison Device. No wonder Hayate had been breezing through an accelerated officer's training.

Muhammad examined it and confirmed quickly it wasn't the report on file. He frowned, hard, glowering at the hologram. "This is unwelcome. Harlaown, as we are suddenly overflowing with problems, what was your concern in brief?"

"The attack on Hayate conducted in a manner that leads me to believe she was assassinated because of her concerns about the use of anti-magilink fields. She was not important with in the Bureau, yet. But she knew people who were important." Chrono was surprised that whatever reaction Zafira had to this, he held it in. "The Navy's Representative on the High Council among them."

Muhammad regarded him speculatively. "And your mother. And yourself."

Chrono didn't blush, but he did appear vaguely embarrassed by the suggestion he was a person of importance in the Navy. He was only a team leader, not that important. He didn't know that he'd already been selected to attend Starship Command School as soon as he met the minimum age requirements and that he was expected to make Admiral well before his thirtieth birthday. Perhaps even before he was twenty-five.

"Harlaown. I will be in touch with you on this matter. I may need your help and the help of your assistants," trust the older man to come up with an acceptable word for what the Wolkenritter were when he couldn't, "to clean this mess up. Go home for now. And do not discuss this with anyone."

Chrono saluted again, and turned to leave. He noted Zafira did not turn his back on the head of Naval Counterintelligence until they were outside of the office. The wolfman rumbled softly a moment later. "You believe Hayate was assassinated."

"What we just saw leaves me with no doubts at all." Chrono replied, then made a quiet gesture to indicate they should not discuss the issue further. Not here, at least. He'd have to discuss it with Zafira and Rein at some point, in assured privacy, if only to gauge their reactions and how it would effect them.


	4. The Things We Didn't Do

**The Things We Didn't Do**

They were at Hayate's funeral. The Bureau had already held its own ceremony; Hayate's name, along with so many others, inscribed in the black marble of the Hall of Remembrance at Bureau Headquarters. Now was the private ceremony.

Like all Bureau members, Hayate had been required to have a will. It was short. If her knights had fallen with her, she wished to be interred where they had fallen; if not, to be laid to rest on Earth, above the city she had grown up in. All her physical possessions were left to the Wolkenritter, or to Fate and Nanoha if the Wolkenritter did not survive Hayate.

Chrono shed no tears as he looked out over the city and ocean where he'd first met Hayate. If anyone had asked, he would say it was because he had done his crying when Hayate's body was still warm.

In reality, it was because he had to be. Somebody had to at least look strong, so that others had someone to turn to for strength. Vita wasn't crying either, but only by a visible and monumental effort of will. Shamal...he was holding Shamal, an arm around her shoulders. It was intensely uncomfortable for him, but he couldn't just let her fall.

He was just thinking that everyone would make it through without a complete breakdown when Signum collapsed into the dirt with a sound of complete hopelessness. There was a moment where he nearly vocalized his thoughts of "oh damn it, what do I do now?", but he clamped down on it. A quick jerk of his head brought Zafira over to look after Shamal, and he took four long steps to reach Signum, kneeling down next to her. Chrono placed his hands on her shoulders gently, trying to hold her a little steady, to calm her. "Come on Signum. On your feet."

Signum's whole body shook with her sobs. "You don't understand."

"No," Chrono said softly, "I don't. But I know Hayate wanted you to be alive to do something, and she wasn't the sort who'd enjoy you face-down in the mud so I don't think this was it." He gently pulled the senior Wolkenritter to a sitting position, or tried to: she actually fought him. "Come on."

Signum reluctantly consented to be pulled upright after a few seconds, and eventually to her feet. Chrono, one arm around her waist, gently guided her a short distance away. "Talk to me." It was spoken softly, but it was also clearly a command.

Signum had pulled herself together significantly to his surprise. Her cheeks were still wet, but she wasn't actively crying. "I apologize. I should not-"

"You should." He was forceful on that point, though still soft-spoken. "I would be failing Hayate and failing you if I denied you the right to be simply human. If you need to cry, cry, if you need some time, take it. But do it leaning on someone. That's what we're here for."

Signum was fairly sure that the Wolkenritter were for their owner to lean on, not the reverse, but...he was Master of the Book. She was too strongly conditioned by her long service to argue the point to his face. She didn't lean on him and that was all.

Or she intended not to. Signum's long and varied experience hadn't prepared her for this situation very well. And Chrono had Fate, who had her own deep-seated emotional issues and had needed, but been reluctant to ask for, support. This was something he _did_ know how to do, even though Signum was slightly taller than him and he didn't feel particularly comfortable about having an arm around her waist.

So Signum ended up leaning against Chrono tentatively, and she wasn't sure why. But it did make her feel better, and it did change how she looked at him. If he'd noticed, it probably would have caused him to let go.

* * *

As the ceremony, brief as it was, ended, Chrono looked to the Wolkenritter. They were all dry-eyed by now, having moved around a bit to no longer lean on anyone. To his surprise, they were looking outward. A moment after that he realized they were actually in formation; a standardized VIP guard formation right out of the training manual. Apparently it went back further than he'd known.

Guarding him. Like they often had for Hayate, until she'd been around Bureau types enough to recognize what they were doing and had made them stop.

Cautiously, he opened up just a little to the link. _You do not have to do that._

_We do not know that._ Zafira replied. _This area is not secure by any reasonable definition of the word._

_It's our job._ Vita added.

Chrono nodded slowly to himself. The Wolkenritter had often seemed, to him, to be a little distressed after Hayate had made them stop, even when it didn't seem really appropriate. Now he thought he understood. _Carry on._ Let them feel they were doing as they should, rather than cause them distress. It wasn't hurting anyone. He closed off the link. "If you would give me a little bit of space? I'd like to have a private word with Hayate."

Signum nodded and directed the Wolkenritter outwards to the four compass points around Chrono, taking Rein with her. Chrono waited, and then spoke. "I don't know why you chose me. Everyone here could have looked after them; everyone would have done their best for them. I was special, somehow. I could probably figure it out, but that effort can be put to better use. But I give you my word, Hayate. I will take care of your knights."

"Chrono-" Arisa said. She'd cornered him only moments after he'd moved away from Hayate's grave, apparently having been looking for him.

Chrono pressed a hand over his eyes, thumb and ring fingers pressing into his temples to try and resist a headache. This conversation would hurt. "Yes?"

"You and the Wolkenritter. Explain." Arisa said.

Maybe he could still avoid it. "What about it?"

"You arrived with them-" Arisa began.

"So did my sister and mother." Chrono pointed out reasonably.

"And you were pretty touchy-feely with Shamal and Signum." Arisa finished. She didn't notice the fact that Zafira was looming behind her, ready to act if she made any move to threaten Chrono. Not that Arisa could really hurt him, he'd turned out in full Barrier Jacket, which was from someone of Chrono's background a great show of respect for the departed. Zafira didn't much care however. People who tried to hurt Chrono regardless of their odds of success would have it demonstrated, painfully if necessary, that it was a bad idea.

Unlike Arisa, Suzuka had noticed the wolfman standing behind her friend and the tense stillness of his posture that indicated he was ready to start hitting people. So she cut to the chase before Arisa managed to make anyone angry. "Chrono, Hayate told us they were essentially her personal property. She is gone, they are not, they are our friends. We need to know."

Chrono let his hand fall to his side and took a deep breath. "Hayate...gave them to me. I have to take care of them, don't I?" Well, actually, he probably didn't. But he could think of easier ways to convince himself that he'd better get to work on a suicide right now, before he went _really_ bad.

He'd spent a lot of time on that lately. It was actually pretty morbid, now that he thought about it. Perhaps it was Hayate's death that had him thinking about his own mortality. Or maybe it was the fact he now controlled people who had conquered planets with their little group on occasion. It wasn't just the fact he could accidentally get a lot of people people killed though. It would be _very easy_ to be monstrously cruel to the Wolkenritter, and they probably wouldn't warn him before he did it.

Fortunately the two girls didn't notice. "So...you're in charge now." Arisa said. "I'd threaten you if you hurt them, but..." They both knew how futile it was for Arisa, fiery temper or not, to threaten a combat mage.

"I'm reasonably sure I'll be the first one in line to kill me if things go wrong." Chrono replied softly. "But if I forget to do so for some reason, either kill me or get Nanoha to do it." Sure, he had the Wolkenritter, but Nanoha Takamachi would find a way. It was what she did.

Arisa eyed him worriedly. "You're actually serious about that."

Chrono smiled faintly. "I'd rather not be a monster long, if I end up a monster. Keep the pain for everyone to a minimum."

* * *

They had, eventually, come home to Mid. Fate stayed on Earth, going to school with Nanoha still; she came home only on weekends or special occasions...though it wasn't hard to go visit her if they so desired, and they did so often. Arf always stayed on Earth, keeping Fate's residence there in order.

They'd visited with Nanoha's family. Chrono knew, intellectually, that Nanoha's father was not someone he should be afraid of. But something about the man intimidated him. He felt somewhat better noticing that he wasn't the only one. The Wolkenritter also treated the man with caution. Perhaps he should ask them if they knew why they did so, but for now...

Signum had stopped in front of the portrait of his father in the entry hall to the Harlaown estate. Chrono turned, and either Signum felt his eyes on her, or he wasn't as cut off from the link between them as he'd hoped. "Your father?"

Chrono nodded. "Yes."

He was surprised by the...sentimental look, that passed over Signum's face, and the fact she reached out and touched the portrait frame. "I wish I had met him."

That got a big frown out of Chrono and a lesser one out of Lindy, who had just taken notice of the conversation. "Why?" Chrono asked. It wasn't quite a demand, but he couldn't think of many reasons for Signum to say that and most of them were things she should have known better than to voice in this house.

"He beat us. You must understand, that is a rare thing, for all of us to be beaten by only one person. It has happened under twenty times since we first woke to service to the Book. Even those who bring armies against us have often found they were not as well-prepared as they thought." Signum paused her explanation.

She traced a finger down the side of the portrait. "Two dozen Bureau flight mages, simple A-rankers, your father in command. We had laughed off twice that number of Belkan warriors of similar ability. We were instead set up and knocked out like the toy mages of a child. Then, aboard the _Hestia_, your father saved his crew and defeated us again without ever raising a Device." Signum shook her head. "Twice. He beat us twice. No one else ever has. Some people fight with their fists, some their hearts. Your father fought with his mind, and in using that weapon he showed truly exceptional skill."

"You take that fact very well." Chrono said. It wasn't really what he'd expected from Signum.

"There is joy in watching a master at work, and honest struggle is fulfilling. I wish I could have met Clyde. Kissed his hand, perhaps. He deserved such an acknowledgment of his skill." Signum sounded positively nostalgic, which was seriously weirding Chrono out.

Vita gave the senior Wolkenritter a look that said Signum was being terminally dense. "Nobody's gonna get the hand-kissing thing, Signum. We're probably the last people left who would. Stop with the incomprehensible Belkan Knight trivia."

Chrono shook his head and patted Vita's shoulder. "It's a part of who she is. She's welcome to continue." Signum inclined her head towards Chrono gratefully.

"He treats us well," Shamal said softly to Lindy, "But sometimes because he's afraid of us."

"He is not afraid of you for the reasons you think." Lindy replied. "Yes, you are a great deal of power, but command of a Bureau warship was always on Chrono's to-do list. Powerful as you are, no group of four can stand against a cruiser at war. He will adapt to that aspect quickly enough."

"But then why does he seem so uncomfortable?"

Lindy chuckled softly. "He owns you. He could give you any order he wishes. And two of you are very attractive females, and my son is seventeen. With a lot of hormonal impulses but yet things he'd rather not have upon his conscience."

Shamal's eyes widened slightly and she covered her mouth with one hand. "Oh."


	5. Housekeeping

**Housekeeping**

The Wolkenritter had, after examining the magic and technology that had gone into the Harlaown estate's security, and considering other factors like their changed place in the world and the public nature of their relationship with Chrono, decided that it would be acceptable for all of them to be asleep at once...but only at certain times.

Dawn wasn't one of them. It was a classic time to stage an attack, and the Wolkenritter were nothing if not thorough when it came to the safety of their masters and mistresses. They'd had a lot of time to consider and practice.

That meant that Vita was awake and moving around the downstairs when Chrono came down. Vita's eyebrows went up. She'd heard him start down the stairs, but not the moving around and the shower usually associated with that immaculate uniformed look. Then she mentally berated herself for being silly. Barrier Jacket, of course.

"There a particular reason for wandering around in your Jacket? Zafira seemed pretty insistent we exercise due caution..." Vita probed.

"Maybe." Chrono said softly. "Was she," Hayate of course, there were no other _she_s in the Harlaown household until Chrono felt sure nobody was going to have a breakdown at the name, "working on something in particular? Poking old files?"

"You think she was targeted." Vita wasn't a fool. She'd been around the block just as many times as any of the other Wolkenritter.

"I can't rule it out. You know how suspicious it looks to be attacked by AMF-using drones after her AMF work." Chrono replied. "If she knew something or did something, it would help this all to make sense."

"If she was, she didn't tell me. She was talking about her aerial tactics classes for the Bureau, had been for weeks, her Earth schooling never challenged her the same way officer training did and so it never held her casual interest." Vita paused. "Hayate and I were...close. I know we were all close to Hayate, but it was like how things are between you and Zafira. For years. Even though she didn't want us guarding her, we never left her alone long. I did the guard duty even when we pretended it was something else. Always. I knew her better than anyone. She didn't say anything to me that sounds like a reason to have her killed. And if there is anything in this universe stronger than our loyalty to our mistress or master..."

"If she didn't say anything, there was nothing to say." Chrono said softly. He shook it off. "Then we have a serious problem. The mission reports were altered after we filed them."

Vita crossed her arms and spat a curse in Old Belkan before continuing in Mid. "Conspiracy amateur hour. If they'd left it alone everything would be suspicious, but only suspicious."

Chrono shrugged. "Smart enemies are more dangerous. There's much to be said for having dumb ones to beat senseless."

Vita grinned, showing a lot of teeth for someone of her apparent age. "There is that. Should I tell the others?"

"Rein and Zafira already know, but yes." Chrono replied. He gave her a quick pat on the shoulder. "I'm glad to see you take your duties so seriously."

"Always." Vita replied automatically. "Always seriously."

* * *

There was too much to get done, and too little time to do it. Hayate's Linker Core had fused with the Book directly, granting her huge amounts of power, no control. With her death, all that power passed to Rein, who was better at controlling it than Hayate had been, but still did her best work on that front from inside a Unison.

The problem was that Rein was supposed to Unison with Chrono, and neither he nor his Device were ready to handle that. S2U would fry itself in seconds trying to handle that much power. Hayate had been the only person in the world with a working understanding of the mechanics of Unison. So Chrono had to get his Device worked on, and he had to practice working with Rein, only Rein was the person who best knew how to work with his Device so it could handle the power involved.

Chrono rested his head in his hand a moment over a workbench. Scattered across several more were components from S2U, taking up at least fifty times the volume of the Device when fully assembled; an active, assembled Device kept most of its parts in in an extradimensional pocket to make it easy to carry and use. "I'm starting to think I can't manage this, Rein."

"You've gotten most of it done!" The Unison Device replied. "Not much left."

"Storage and bleedoff are easy, you just add more of what you already have, they can work in parallel. Discharge and input don't work in parallel. You need one piece to do all the work. I think at this point I'd need parts from a starship secondary gun to make this work. That'll take weeks to get. Maybe more."

Rein winced. "That is how it was done the first time."

Chrono stared at her. "You're joking. Hayate actually had starship weapon parts in her Device?" Rein shook her head and responded negatively to the first sentence and positively to the second. Chrono sighed again. "I guess I'd better start on that."

"You won't." Zafira said from the door. "Because in the meantime, your mother and I have worked out a temporary solution and you look like you need some rest."

"Zafira, I know you're supposed to protect me from myself..." Chrono trailed off, noticing what Zafira was carrying. "Durandel?"

"**Welcome back, Boss.**" the Device's cardlike storage form said as Zafira held it out and Chrono took it tentatively.

Durandel qualified as a unique artifact. This was not to say that it could not be reproduced. The Bureau could have built a Device like Durandel, not in exactly the same way as some of the materials in Durandel's construction were unique to pre-Fall Belka, but replicating what Durandel _did_ was entirely possible.

Rather, it was that nobody would ever go to all the effort. Durandel was a masterwork, not only in the exquisite craftsmanship it had been assembled with, but in the quality of the components and the sheer amount of power the design had been meant to handle. Building a Device to replicate what Durandel did might take a year and cost nearly as much as a Bureau cruiser.. Building a Device to match all of Durandel's qualities was not something for which reasonable cost and time estimates could be made. Even then only a dozen or so people in the Bureau's history would have been able to use a significant fraction of what Durandel had to offer.

And Chrono knew it. He also knew that the reason Durandel spoke Mid rather than Belkan was because the Bureau had recovered it with its physical components intact and its programming wrecked. The last time he'd used Durendal it had been just barely functional enough for combat. "I take it things have been improved since last time?" Chrono asked.

Zafira nodded, but it was Durandel that answered aloud. "**Yes Boss. Doing much better now.**"

Chrono took a deep breath. He had a Device that could handle the power he and Rein together would wield. That eliminated his major problem right now, since he knew he could take a Unison with Rein. They hadn't really worked out if he did it well, because casting magic at the level that would let them figure it out was hard to do safely. But it wasn't like he was depending on his raw power level.

Then another person, in the blue Navy uniform, came in and handed him a paper envelope. Paper communications and records weren't used much by the Bureau, mainly for matters that were extremely highly protected; physical sheets of paper were easier to control access to and if necessary easier to confirm destroyed. He opened it up, and... _You will report at once to the head of Naval Counterintelligence. Bring the Wolkenritter._

"The resting is going to have to wait." Chrono said softly. "New orders. How long would it take for the others-" And suddenly they were there.

Chrono stared. "This area is blind to teleport. By design."

"We didn't teleport." Vita replied. "You needed us. We came."

Chrono's expression suggested he didn't find that an adequate explanation. "This conversation isn't over. Come on."

* * *

The security team here, Chrono could tell, wasn't happy about the Wolkenritter. This many armed people in the presence of Muhammad was clearly not a normal occurrence and it had them edgy. But what _really_ upset them was when they were told to leave the room, and...

"Admiral Lowran." His salute was quick, but not as quick as the Wolkenritter managed. Chrono consoled himself that they'd probably had a lifetime worth of extra practice somewhere along the way.

"Lieutenant Commander Harlaown. And team." Leti Lowran said. "At ease." Chrono noticed that Muhammad had never stood to attention or saluted, which was either a serious insult to Lowran or an indication that the two were much more familiar than he knew.

"What you are going to be told," Muhammad began, "cannot leave this room. There is a non-zero chance that even discussing it via telepathy or the link you now have with the Wolkenritter will place you in danger of your life. Now, you are familiar with Article Seven of the Bureau charter, concerning the original High Council."

Chrono nodded slowly, playing for time. "It granted them total authority in security matters, but it was rarely exercised, and it passed into obsolescence when they-" His expression twisted into something unrecognizable. "At least one of them is still alive? They could be easily over a hundred and fifty, sir."

"Possible for a mage." Shamal said softly. "But low probability, all three is very unlikely. At least if they kept a physical body. There was technology in Belka that could keep someone alive significantly longer but they would be just a brain in a jar, communicating but not able to take action."

Leti Lowran looked grim. "So that's how they did it. I always wondered."

"This is completely insane." Chrono paused, then added a belated "Sirs." At least he'd managed to remember the unwritten rule that only admirals swear in front of admirals.

"Most likely." Muhammad said. "Your surmise is correct, Chrono. They are still alive. They do still have access to Article Seven, and a small force of loyalists in on the secret. I've known of them for several years, but though they regularly violate Bureau laws, their actions have not been dangerous to the safety and security of the Bureau, while the discovery they're still active-"

"Rioting in the streets. We might even have a civil war," Leti Lowran cut in. "We know they participated in the coverup, so either they or an agent of theirs killed Hayate Yagami. They've either lost the plot or are starting to lose control."

"...technically, if Article Seven is still in effect, their actions could easily be legal. Attempting to remove them by force would certainly be treason, sirs." Chrono said softly.

Muhammad shrugged. "My job, Chrono, is largely to ensure that the Navy keeps only the secrets which serve the good of all. Hayate Yagami possessed a keen, incisive mind. Her AMF tactics paper was a brilliant piece of work. She was well-served by her knights and her network of friends and associates. The Bureau lost a loyal, hardworking servant who was in my opinion destined for flag rank." Admiral Lowran nodded in agreement with that assessment, and Chrono momentarily closed his eyes. _General_ Yagami, if she'd lived long enough... But Muhammad continued."Very few things could justify this as for the good of all. Which is why we need to try and confirm or deny it."

"Understood sir." Chrono turned to the Wolkenritter, and braced himself. This was the first time he'd say this, and he hoped but didn't expect it would be the last. "As the master of the Book of the Night Sky I ask you: do you know of _any _reason Hayate should have been considered a threat to the Bureau?"

Signum answered first, as most senior of the Wolkenritter. "While she had us, she could not be considered harmless as we represent a great deal of power. But she was proud to be a part of the Bureau and to our knowledge served it loyally as long as she still drew breath." The others answered with slightly different words but identical meanings.

Leti Lowran closed her eyes for a second, and her head turned slightly to the left in a wince. "That's what I was afraid of. Yagami worked on how to fight under AMF, the Article Seven crowd worked on creating portable AMF and wanted to keep it as a personal superweapon, which if Yagami had been given time to spread her ideas wouldn't have worked so well."

Muhammad shook his head. "We cannot prove that, Leti." The use of her first name, especially considering that there was an audience and that Muhammad was ranked lower than the Admiral, proved Chrono's theory about the two being closer than he knew. "It is a reasonable supposition, but we can only prove the actions taken, not the motive for them." He looked back to Chrono. "I need to know where you stand on this issue, Harlaown. I will give you time to consider an answer now."

The two senior officers withdrew. Chrono didn't move for several seconds afterwards, then finally found a chair at the conference table that hadn't been used and looked over at the Wolkenritter. "I know you're angry. They know you're angry. Your self-control is impressive but I need your honesty right now."

The Wolkenritter's expressions slowly, over the course of several minutes, switched from impassive to enraged. It was as if they were afraid letting it all out at once would result in a sudden violent action, Chrono thought; like they didn't trust themselves. Silly in his opinion, he was the only one here and they were hardwired to be unable to hurt him. But they probably hadn't been this mad in a long time... "We need to all be on the same page with this. We're too closely connected for only some of us to do it." Chrono managed not to wince discussing the link. And the Wolkenritter didn't need it explained how difficult keeping an ongoing secret would be in that context. Even cutting off from their link to each other when engaged in activity that others on the link weren't supposed to know would give clues about times when things happened. That could be combined with other information to identify places and actions using only a little curiosity, access to a computer for some maps and basic facts, and the brains of anyone currently in the room. "So, talk to me about it," Chrono commanded. "You're all in, I expect."

Five nods, but Signum spoke. "There are still dangers here. You know these people better than we. Agent provocateurs?"

"Al-Faddil could. The man was hand-picked for the Naval Counterintelligence job and he's good at it. Admiral Lowran...unlikely, but the stakes here are high enough that anyone's normal preferences may not count." Chrono shrugged. "You can read people better than I can, I expect."

"Both of them seemed genuinely angry." Zafira replied. "Why, though-"

"Yeah." Vita agreed. "No clue on that, don't know them. Practical matter though, we can get you out of here if they're not on the level. This isn't the most secure facility the Bureau's got, Mid's a big place once we're gone."

Chrono grimaced. Being a fugitive wasn't something he thought he could manage. "And if I want them alive?"

"Also doable." Signum assured him. "Your decision?"

And that was the problem. He knew what they wanted, but not what he wanted. They would follow his lead regardless but it wasn't that simple for him, he could be forcing them into actions they did not wish by making an unfettered decision of his own...

Really stopping to think about his relationship to and with the Wolkenritter was threatening to give Chrono a headache. It often did. As an officer, he had power over his subordinates, but there were limits to it and times it did not apply. With the Wolkenritter, there were no limits and no time it did not apply. He was trying to create such things, but it wasn't working.

Which illustrated two related but different problems. The first was the Wolkenritter were so conditioned by their long service that he couldn't create limits because he couldn't get them to differentiate between a request and an order. The Wolkenritter would not say no to either, in effect making both things the same.

The other problem was that his power over the Wolkenritter was so absolute that he did not have to say anything, they simply did things for him if they thought he'd want them done. So far they'd been right, but Hayate had told him about how the first Reinforce had tried to go on a rampage when it wasn't really what Hayate had wanted, so they could clearly be wrong too. And just because Chrono wanted something didn't mean it should actually happen either.

_Stop this._ Chrono commanded himself. _You are borrowing trouble from a future that may not come to pass. Make a decision and see then if you must worry about forcing them into actions they do not want to take._

The Bureau was Chrono's life. He'd been born aboard a Bureau warship. He'd enlisted as soon as he was able. He'd probably die and be buried in his uniform. Treason against the Bureau was not something he contemplated lightly, even in this context. Hayate had been his friend, but...not so close as she was to some, certainly not as close to him as the Wolkenritter were to her.

_And this is too important a decision to be made on emotion_. Chrono closed his eyes, dismissing the Wolkenritter from his concerns for a moment. Leaving this room and not seeking some method to report this conversation was, legally, a treasonous act. Much less declaring himself in opposition to the original High Council.

At the same time, what he had heard here was a truth of a terrible, unacceptable nature. Leti Lowran was absolutely correct in that if it got out to the public there would be rioting in the streets. The Bureau had moved on from those early days when control was paramount to keep from being dragged down into anarchy and self-destruction with the Belkans. It was still a military government more than a civilian one, but it was not a dictatorship.

_That phase was always a transitional phase. The first High Council insisted on this itself, that absolute power was necessary only for a generation, to organize and integrate what was left of Belka, and ensure that what happened to them could not happen again_. Chrono opened his eyes and shuddered. His oath of service was not to any particular person. It was to the laws and the ideals of the Time-Space Administrative Bureau, to its people and its worlds. The leaders were deliberately left out.

And that was his answer, wasn't it? Their actions were a perversion and a rejection of everything he had been raised to believe and everything he had sworn to defend, and unless or until they convinced him there was a necessary reason to take such actions, he _had_ to oppose them. It came back to duty after all.

"Signum." He addressed her formally, the tone one she recognized as Chrono on duty.

"Sir," was her reply.

"Inform the Admiral and the Captain that we are on board with any effort to oppose the High Council."

Signum didn't grin. She wanted to, but she didn't. Chrono wouldn't have approved. "At once, sir."

The two senior officers were back a moment later. "Chrono," that was Admiral Lowran. "glad to have you on board. We'll be arranging a transfer for you in the near future, probably to direct reporting to one of us, but there are a few other people we can trust. Regardless, you'll hear from one of us privately before."

Muhammad nodded. "Again, don't discuss this with anyone. You are dismissed."

* * *

Today was another first. He had a Device. He'd practiced Unison with Rein a few times. The Book of the Night Sky was in his left breast interior pocket. Now to put it all together.

"I'm told," Chrono said casually, "that Fate dreams of being able to beat you someday."

"It is a worthy goal," Signum agreed. "She might even manage it. You know I can't harm you. That puts me at a significant disadvantage."

"I know _Levantine_ can't harm me. You, however, are free to give your best effort in the knowledge that your Device will take care of the problem." Chrono raised Durandel. "Are there any particular formalities you'd wish to observe?"

Signum stared blankly at him for a moment. He could see the wheels working in her head; he'd given her blanket permission to indulge in things she probably hadn't been allowed to do in hundreds of years, if not longer. Possibly say things by so doing that Chrono wouldn't ever figure out. "None come to mind."

Chrono was under the distinct impression he'd just been lied to, and wondered if that constituted progress in his relationship with the Wolkenritter. _Probably not. Zafira has implied they will manipulate the master or mistress to protect them_. "Very well then. Begin." The word was barely out of his mouth when Signum attacked.

It was a hard overhead cut, and it nearly cost her the fight right from the top. Chrono didn't know the Book inside and out, but Rein did, and the shield spell she'd dredged up stopped Levantine despite a cartridge enhancement to the attack. It was a distinctly bizarre sensation to have Rein acting and deciding on her own yet casting through him, one Chrono found unpleasant, but...manageable. _Rein. Manage defense. Keep the power use down where possible._

_We can do more_. Rein replied. _But later, once we're used to each other._

It also meant he had the undivided attention to actually strike Signum in the face with a slap from Durandel and buy himself some space. "Sloppy, Signum."

"Opportunities for practice against someone with access to the Book are rare." Signum replied, reconsidering her approach. She hadn't appreciated the advantages Rein and the Book gave. And Hayate would never have tried to exploit that access this way; Signum had never understood why.

Signum struck out again, a series of blows. She made them quick and did not bother checking to see if they would land before setting up for another, because she knew none of them would actually make contact with Chrono. But they kept him and Rein busy.

A few seconds later it was clear she'd made another mistake. She'd lost the initiative. She'd seen things she hadn't seen in generations or even hundreds of years, Belkan defensive spells she thought were lost with the Empire or even before that. Chrono's offense wasn't that great, but...

Then he hit her with a Belkan stunshock spell, something she hadn't seen in a hundred years at least, and Signum swore aloud. Ten seconds later, Levantine flew from her grip, and a hand closed on her throat three seconds after that. "Do you yield?"

Signum's expression flickered from concentration to a thundercloud. Then, her face broke into a radiant smile, and Chrono nearly let go to defend himself before he saw her hands going to her sides. "I yield. _Master._" The way she said it didn't immediately register on Chrono; his mind was still elsewhere, and he wondered where the shiver it had sent through him came from. Then he caught up with _why_ he'd just started pumping a lot of teenage hormones. He didn't have the proper words to describe what she'd said, there was affection, need demanding satisfaction, a hint of submissiveness...

Thinking it over made him shiver again. How could she layer that much meaning into one word? Then Chrono nearly tripped over himself trying to get away from Signum, three separate times in as many paces backwards. "_Don't do that again.__"_

"Is that an order as the master, " thankfully Signum didn't try to stack the word again or Chrono...well he wasn't sure what would have happened, but he would have regretted most of the possible outcomes, "of the Book, or a request from you the person?"

"You," Chrono couldn't decide whether to be rueful, pissed off, or maybe even proud that Signum was turning his effort to give the Wolkenritter independence against him, "_shit_."

Signum smiled at him, with a much less threatening sort of affection. "That was transcendent, Chrono, an honor such as I have seldom been afforded." She bowed to him. "You are your father's son."

Chrono moved away from her quickly after returning the bow out of strained politeness, towards Zafira and his mother. They were the least-threatening people in the room currently. "She hit you up for a reaction." Zafira said, trying to comfort his master. He sounded amused, actually. "Signum lives to test her skills, but some of them carry...unpleasant memories and don't see quite as much use."

Chrono let out a long groan. First Signum had to confirm everything he was afraid of about the Wolkenritter being thousands of years old with all the many and varied skills that would come from it, and now Zafira... "Are you telling me that hitting on me was a show of trust? Faith?"

"She wouldn't have done it if she wasn't willing to risk you responding positively." Zafira replied. "Signum is always fond of people who provide her a challenge. She was showing faith you're a decent person, not something deep. Just somebody she can flirt with."

Lindy developed a coughing fit suddenly, which Zafira recognized . Chrono didn't realize his mother was laughing. His face was buried in his hands.

"That was probably the worst performance I've ever seen you give. Did you _throw_ that fight, Signum?" Vita demanded across the room. She was angry over and above the normal simmering level of anger Vita sometimes lapsed into without warning.

Signum's hand actually twitched towards Levantine's sheathe in response to the perceived insult. "Never. How many times have we fought someone with access to all the knowledge of the Book?"

"Zero." Vita relaxed back into non-angry rather than either seriously angry or normal Vita levels of angry. "That was some really bad guesswork, Signum. _Really_ bad."

"Care to try yourself?" Signum asked acidly. They both knew Vita couldn't have done better.

"Not particularly." Vita replied.


	6. New Orders

It occurred to me while writing this that the Wolkenritter are still kind of fish-out-of-watery at this point, actually; they've been living with Hayate, on Earth, and haven't really been offworld except if the Bureau needed them to beat people up and break things.

**New Orders**

Chrono Harlaown woke in an unaccustomed position, in an unaccustomed place. He'd never, to his knowledge, actually slept sitting up before. Certainly not at one end of a couch in one of the two living rooms on the Harlaown estate. In his lap was a pillow, and on that pillow was Vita's head, her hair unbraided and spread out over it. The rest of Vita was occupying the part of the couch Chrono wasn't using. On the nearest other couch was Zafira in wolf form, head up, looking alert.

Chrono wasn't quite sure how this had happened last night, though he was glad Vita had remembered a pillow. He wasn't that close with any of them yet, and, well there were some unfortunate implications. He was also glad it was Vita rather than one of the others. The youngest-looking Wolkenritter could get away with just acting like a kid, though she was anything but.

Chrono considered for a moment. Hayate had always let Vita get away with acting apparent age rather than actual age, perhaps because exactly what a multi-millenia-old person was supposed to act like wasn't clear. He could always ask Vita to act her age...but he'd always suspected, as Vita acted more mature over the last three years to match her behavior to that of someone _Hayate's_ age, that the Iron Knight was perfectly capable of behaving like an adult, and instead deliberately behaving as someone Hayate could more closely relate to.

Chrono, very carefully, stroked Vita's hair once. Eternal youth wasn't adequate compensation for eternal Wolkenritterhood, if anything he'd read from the Bureau archives during the Book of Darkness incident was true. He'd never asked Hayate, much as he thought Hayate would never ask the Wolkenritter, but the days of the corrupted Book could not have been kind to them. The Bureau had fought the Book of Darkness roughly once a decade in its time, and had some records of Belkan struggles. The Wolkenritter hadn't served people he'd consider stable or well-adjusted, which explained why Zafira had seen fit to comment on the fact Chrono _was_. It also explained a lot about why they had latched onto Hayate so fiercely.

Zafira hopped off the couch he was on and shifted back to his human form with surprising silence for something quite as large as he was. A moment later, Lindy appeared, and Zafira nodded to her and followed into the kitchen.

_Should I be inquiring as to your intentions towards my mother?_ Chrono asked telepathically. The question wasn't meant seriously. Zafira and his mother were both adults who could manage their own love lives, and Chrono in any case didn't want to touch the subject of the Wolkenritter's romances with _any_ length of pole.

Zafira's response of _No_. carried so much embarrassment that Chrono couldn't help but wonder if he ought to be asking the question seriously after all.

_What is it, then?_ Chrono asked.

_We...killed your father. Her husband. Or at least helped to do so. And I think at least part of the reason Hayate gave us to you is that she knew how much it would matter to us if we were given a chance to try and make direct amends for one of our many sins._ Zafira replied.

Chrono's eyes widened slightly, and he was still for a long time. He'd underestimated how bad things really were.

* * *

Chrono reported to Leti Lowran aboard Bureau Headquarters later that day. He stood at ease in front of her desk, having already exchanged formal greetings. Zafira, now in proper Navy mage uniform with a black longcoat to match Chrono's own, shadowed him. And of course where Chrono was, so was Reinforce Zwei.

"I am considering posting you to command of Rapier." Shipboard Mage Teams were numbered. Shore command, a misnomer since most of them were actually based on space stations, Mage Teams were named. Each 'belonged' to a senior officer in the Bureau hierarchy, as their personal weapon for dealing with particularly intractable or annoying problems they encountered in the course of their duties. Rapier belonged to the Commanding Officer First Fleet, responsible for Navy operations around Midchilda and the Bureau's core worlds. That was Leti Lowran herself.

"A special forces assignment?" Chrono asked. From most military points of view, _all_ Navy combat mages were special forces. They performed a range of missions from suspect apprehension to dimensional breach control that typically had very little to do with conventional military combat, though their training embraced both their vast array of non-conventional missions and major combat against both mage and non-mage military forces. But some of the named Teams dealt more exclusively in what would be recognized as traditional special forces missions. Rapier was one of them. So was Javelin, which belonged to Naval Counterintelligence.

"Yes. You'd have a Mage Team, and the support personnel normally built into the crew of a starship as well. Around twenty people. You already know some of them; Amy Linetta is currently a computer specialist for Rapier." Leti paused. "This could derail your career. A lot of people never make it beyond commander, leading Rapier or Javelin. It's a narrow specialty, away from starship work, and that can prejudice assignments to a starship captaincy. No one makes admiral without having commanded a ship."

Chrono nodded. "But tell me, Admiral, how many starship captains wish they had commanded Rapier or Javelin?"

Leti Lowran smiled wide. "I would have when I was a captain. The position does carry a certain prestige. Will you accept?"

"Of course." Chrono replied. "But the current team...?"

"Not an issue. Consider yourself posted to the Rapier command immediately, Lieutenant Commander."

Chrono snapped a salute.

* * *

"Of course it's not an issue." Zafira muttered once they'd left Leti Lowran's office. "They're a wreck."

Chrono glanced at Zafira. "Is there something you know here?"

"I asked a few questions of the right people." Zafira shrugged. "Rapier's last mission resulted in mental contamination problems. Half the combat team turned on the other. They have to be broken up under those circumstances, there's no unit cohesion left and no way to rebuild it using the same people."

Chrono winced. "Poking Belkan artifacts is never exactly safe. How did you know who to ask?"

"Military organizations all exist for the same reasons, so they have a certain continuity of internal design." Zafira replied. "And apparently having a pair of fuzzy ears goes a long way."

Chrono frowned at him. "No co-opting other people into violating the regs, Zafira."

"Of course not." Zafira replied, with a hint of affronted at the suggestion he would. "Strictly unclassified information and some reading between the lines-" He abruptly moved between Chrono and someone else in the hall. "Not happening, Lieutenant."

Chrono turned and his lips twisted into a frown. "Lieutenant Gaiz." His voice managed not to convey how angry it made him to see Auris Gaiz still in possession of an officer's commission after having been caught in the act while committing a court-martial offense. "You have a good reason to approach me, Lieutenant?"

"My father loaned certain items to Hayate he'd like returned."

_No he didn't_. Zafira commented telepathically. So that meant she just wanted to poke through Hayate's things. Again.

Chrono nodded. "Describe them to me, and I will see if I can locate them." She was quick on her mental feet, Chrono had to admit, describing a copy of Olivie's _On Evil_, so she hadn't completely blown it that she'd really wanted to look herself. Pity he hadn't needed her to. Chrono mentally marked Auris Gaiz down as a member of the Article Seven group and told himself to be wary. "I will check for you, but I don't recall it."

Defeated, Auris Gaiz nodded, and moved off.

* * *

Leave was over. And though the ritual of sons going to war contained certain similarities no matter who their mother was, Lindy Harlaown took it better than most. It was still new and unusual for the Wolkenritter, though. Something they had never actually seen before, and novel experiences were thin on the ground for anyone as old as they were.

Something that was extremely surprising to be included in, as Lindy took the time to address each of them individually. "I expect him to come back." That was said as Lindy Harlaown, mother of Chrono Harlaown. "I expect _all_ of you to come back. No mistakes this time, Lieutenant." That was Lindy Harlaown, Admiral, and she was giving an order to Signum as the nominal leader of the Wolkenritter.

"No mistakes, Admiral." Signum agreed, showing she understood she was being addressed on two levels. Shamal, next over, nodded agreement and shook hands with Lindy, but whatever words they exchanged softly none of the others caught.

Zafira got a hug, which surprised him. Vita smiled when it was her turn. "We'll bring him back." That got her a laugh and and hug too.

* * *

Chrono's first day back on the job wasn't one as Officer In Charge, Rapier. Zafira had been right in that the current team was apparently something of a wreck, because apparently some things needed to be patched back together before he could assume command. And there was no plan for a formal change of command ceremony.

That said a lot to someone as familiar with the workings of the Bureau as Chrono. The current commander of Rapier was considered to be so incapacitated, or had done something so wrong, they couldn't be trusted to stand up for thirty minutes and say a few words. So instead he found himself somewhat at loose ends for a day.

Not for long. Amy Linetta found him. "So I hear you're my boss in a day or two." The smile she gave him was positively impish.

Chrono had learned how to kill the mood very quickly, thanks to time spent with Amy before now. "Amy, what am I inheriting?"

Amy's face screwed up. "If you were keeping anybody from the combat portion of the team, things would be real bad. They hit rock bottom. Things aren't great on the support side, but you can turn it around I'm sure." She glanced at Zafira, shadowing them both quietly. "Though your...escorts, seem to be kind of dour. Might not help."

"Give them time." Chrono said. How long? Six months, a year, a lifetime. And though he cared, he'd be a monster not to care, he wasn't and couldn't be what Hayate had been for them. He didn't see a way to start working this mess out yet. "Give me time, too. They might have me figured out but the reverse isn't true."

Amy looked at him curiously. She had to look up at him, just a little, now. "They've been with you what, a couple weeks?"

Chrono struggled for a moment with how to convey what he'd realized only a few minutes into his formally being master of the Wolkenritter. "They are...old. Ancient beyond mortal reckoning in a pretty literal sense. If they don't figure out somebody in a week, something is being deliberately hidden from them."

Amy didn't appear to be convinced, but didn't comment either. "The group here's not going to be a problem for you, I've seen you work."

Amy introduced him to everyone. Two medics, who were happy to take over Shamal's attention for a bit. Two maintenance people who were going to have very little to do with the Wolkenritter's Devices being as manifested as the Wolkenritter themselves, but seemed pretty eager at the chance they'd get to play with Durandel and were happy to take S2U off Chrono's hands to finish the upgrade. Amy and her assistant, computer specialists. Two sensors techs. A supply officer. No less than four combat controllers, a luxury. Normally a Mage Team only had only one angel on the shoulder, keeping them appraised of whatever they needed to know but couldn't see for themselves. Here they'd apparently had one for each of a normal team's sections.

Chrono was reasonably certain that, for now, he and the Wolkenritter would be it. There weren't that many people who could be expected to keep up with a Wolkenritter in action, he could only think of three or four of them at the moment, and of those only one was actually Navy.

And it wasn't like his sister's CO was just going to let somebody of her caliber be transferred. They'd fight tooth and nail to hold on to her. Chrono understood that; it wasn't like you could get a real replacement for someone like Fate.

Amy was right. There was a tense undercurrent here, something unspoken. They were maintaining, of course. If not exactly at the pinnacle of their professions they were certainly in place where their actions and decisions _mattered_ on a Bureau-wide scale more than any other posting they would probably ever reach. But they needed something to rally around, and Chrono was it.

He checked nobody was watching before allowing himself a momentary grimace.

* * *

"Impressions." Chrono said, at the end of the day. The Wolkenritter glanced at each other and around the room, looking for someone he might have wanted to consult. Chrono sighed. "You've got more combat experience in your left little toes individually than I could accumulate in my whole life. I'm going to ask your opinions. Often. Get used to it."

Another exchanged of glances. "Keep in mind our perspectives are...skewed. The Bureau's way of war and preparing for war is foreign to us. We've been living on Earth and only interacted with the Bureau in the field." Signum replied. "Their morale is not soured, but it is starting to go stale. Were they Belkan Knights, I would recommend immediate deployment to an active battle zone. Action would remind them why they are here." Vita nodded her agreement.

"The medical staff seem capable enough." Shamal said. She blushed faintly. "The Bureau's use of automated medical equipment is still new to me, but they both referred knowledgeably to handling major trauma."

Chrono looked at Zafira. "Any thoughts?"

"Be careful about your prior relationship with Amy." Zafira said. "They don't need a reason to get upset with you. Don't give them one." He shrugged and his ears twitched. "Protect you from yourself."

"None taken." Chrono responded to the implied remark at the end. "And you're right. I'll be careful." The Wolkenritter exchanged more glances, and Vita's eyebrows went up, but none of them commented.

* * *

_To: ComFirstFleet  
_

_EYES ONLY_

_From: Director, NavCounterIntel._

_Leti:_

_Attached are files I received from a friend in Ground Forces when making discrete inquiries into possible Anti-Magilink Field use incidents. They detail a suppressed investigation undertaken by the Special Investigative Service last year. I knew the involved team personally. They were all very capable, but they were apparently wiped out in an ambush that demonstrated not only advanced cybernetics technology, but as you will note, AMF technology and drones similar to those which killed Hayate Yagami._

_Followup on the case was recently assigned to an Air Force officer, one Tiida Lanster. We should reach out to him.  
_


	7. Testing the Water

**Testing the Water**

"While I'm always pleased to greet a woman like," the pink-haired woman's smile shifted from friendly to I-think-your-genitals-will-taste-delicious-once-properly-cooked, so Tiida Lanster switched gears to address the blonde, "you, what brings you here"

Chrono shook his head in amusement and took a seat across from the Air Force officer. "Wrong person, Captain."

Tiida made a face. "I figured that, Commander Harlaown, but some days I just want things to be simple." He recognized Chrono, they'd met before once or twice when Chrono was active as an Enforcer before going back to the Navy for his provisional team command. And then Hayate had died.

"About your new assignment, it's actually what I can do for you. It's an informal exam for Enforcer." Chrono said.

"Pretty sure you're not supposed to tell me that." Tiida Lanster replied.

"And you're probably not supposed to pass it, because they didn't give you these." Chrono slid the paper files, stamped "ComFirstFleet EYES ONLY" across the desk.

"Even more sure you're not supposed to show me those." Tiida added.

"Actually," Chrono said, "I'm under orders to get you to read them." He smirked faintly. "I could get Zafira," he gestured to the wolf-man, "to hold you down and make you, if you like."

Tiida eyed the wolf-man and sighed, picking them up. "I would have taken that offer if you'd said the blonde, you know." He started reading quickly. "Shit, is this for real? They tell me I'm looking for a couple SIS types who went UA and they're probably dead or captured?"

"Admiral Lowran told me, I tell you." Chrono replied.

"And what's in this gift for you anyways?" Tiida asked, flipping through the report.

"Me? I dislike seeing loyal, capable people get screwed, so I find this personally fulfilling." Chrono shrugged. "The Admiral on the other hand would appreciate a call from you if something goes wrong. She has a case on her plate that might be connected and doesn't really want a lead to disappear, so she's willing to offer support."

Tiida leaned back in his seat. "What kind of support?"

Chrono nodded at the question. "Anything from a good word to dropping Mage Team Rapier in direct combat support, as required."

Tiida's eyes widened slightly. The Navy tended not to get involved in problems on Bureau worlds so as not to cause friction with the Air Force or Ground Forces. It usually only stepped in when requested to provide assistance, or when the situation had escalated so far that only the vast and varied abilities available to a Bureau warship could hope to resolve matters. Normal investigation and law enforcement work was left to other services save for when the Navy investigated itself.

Unless the Navy perceived a threat so serious as to pose a danger to the Bureau as a whole, or it thought someone wasn't being straight with it, or both. "What the hell have I been given as an assignment?" Tiida demanded. He finally put two and two together regarding Chrono's escorts. "And what the hell about it is so bad I'd need the _Wolkenritter_ as backup?"

Chrono grimaced. No, Tiida wasn't dumb at all. "At this point I really don't know. I'm not sure the Admiral knows either. But you're being asked to poke something that took down three of the Special Investigative Service's best combat mages, two of them apparently alive, is probably holding them captive, and didn't leave any evidence. Didn't bleed, for example. I don't know of anything else in Bureau space quite so worthy of attention from the Wolkenritter. Do you?"

"Like hell." Tiida Lanster was a capable, competent officer. He simply played at being otherwise. "Permanent teleport homing beacon in my Device. It goes dark or I call, you come running?"

Chrono considered a moment. Leti Lowran had told him that anything that would get him into action was good, because she trusted Chrono and the Wolkenritter to make sure that even if their enemies got away, they would leave a mess behind them. Messes, physical evidence of the group's existence, was the death of a conspiracy. And if they could take someone alive...the damage that would do to a conspiracy was hard to overstate. "Can do."

Tiida Lanster offered a hand. "Pleasure to work with you, Lieutenant Commander."

Chrono shook hands. "Likewise, Captain."

Tiida grinned. "So, Signum-"

"Tempt not a Wolkenritter to kill you where you stand." Signum said evenly. "To you casual murder is a weighty and nearly incomprehensible act. To them it is something often done between breaths."

Tiida sighed. "You're less fun than a Church Knight."

Chrono frowned at Signum. "Careful." The statement was directed at no one in particular on purpose, as a warning to both parties.

_It's Gaiz again._ Vita warned him from outside the door as Chrono turned to go.

Chrono's expression might have been carved in stone for all the emotion it showed when he stepped out of Tiida's office. "Lieutenant."

"Commander, I've been asked to again look-"

"In the words of a team leader I had as a lieutenant, don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining." Signum gave Chrono a surprised look from behind him. She'd always seen the side of him that was formal, and polite. He could be cold, even hostile, but never as vulgar as she was accustomed to soldiers or Knights being. It was actually reassuring to her to hear him do so. "You want something from Hayate Yagami's personal effects. That you lied about what suggests you have no right to it. Continue, and I will make it my mission in life to find out what it is that you're so interested in. So consider carefully whether you want me to know what that is before you speak."

As for Chrono, he watched Auris Gaiz's reaction carefully. She was a puppet on someone else's string, forced to dance, now forced to stab herself repeatedly because she'd known approaching him again would make him curious. She resented it, too.

But all she could do was turn away.

* * *

Training, Chrono had thought at first, would be pointless to the Wolkenritter. He hadn't realized that he was about as wrong as possible. They had nothing to learn when it came to the basics, and Chrono understood now why Fate said she _dreamed_ of defeating Signum one on one, not planned to.

But they were pathetically unused to having so much support structure behind them, and really didn't know what to do with it. The four combat controllers, whose job was to be the angel on the shoulder providing helpful reminders, directions, information that they couldn't see for themselves. Amy and her assistant who were handy whenever someone needed a computer broken, dissected, or made to dance a jig. In theory you might even end up with one of the sensor techs or medics on the line sometimes.

The Wolkenritter were not used to being _legitimate _either. They still tended to think more like fugitives than anything else; keep it quiet, don't make a mess. It wasn't a bad attitude, necessarily. It just didn't match reality, and like most things that didn't match reality would inevitably cause trouble.

Zafira and Vita were both off talking with the controller crew. Shamal was discussing the cartridge situation with the supply officer, with cartridges still being a rare commodity. But the Wolkenritter would not let him entirely out of their sight, not in an area with semi-public access.

Which meant Chrono couldn't hit the showers alone. Signum was there too, somewhere, behind him. He can hear her shower running. The usual prescription for this situation is to run his shower cold, as cold as possible, but Chrono knows from experience that doesn't work aboard Bureau Headquarters. The station's water supply doubles as a heat sink, so most days it was never colder than lukewarm. And the showers don't have special chillers to cool it.

Mostly, he tries not to think about the fact that Signum is _nude_ somewhere behind him. He actually does quite well at it, better most would manage. But for those times when he fails, he took the opposite tack from the cold water. Instead, he's got it all the way up, to the point where it's hot enough to be almost painful. If he leans a little too close to the showerhead, it actually is.

Focus on getting washed up. Fortunately there's an entrance on either side. He won't have to turn around to leave. Aside from the hiss of the other shower, it's very easy to pretend he's alone.

And then Signum had to go and ruin it all by talking to him. "Chrono," and her voice was surprisingly gentle, much gentler then he'd thought the swordswoman capable of, "I am not trying to seduce you. I'm not even trying to flirt with you right now. I am trying to show that your fear of forcing me into doing something I do not wish to do is a fear with no basis in reality."

Chrono sighed. "It does strike you that stress-testing my self-control is a bad way to go about it, yes?" He started to wash his hair.

"It would," soft and...almost lazy now, "were that what I was doing." Chrono deliberately leans too close to the showerhead, rinsing his hair out, risking scalding himself by how long he does it. Signum's relaxed, casual tone, considering they're in a room together naked, isn't helping.

But she's mercifully silent after that. And Chrono doesn't ask what she's actually trying to do. Eventually, just before he's done, he hears her shower shut off. "Chrono?"

"Yes?"

"A woman who showers in the same locker room as a man has either considered he will see her naked, or is not very bright. And if she has considered and does so anyways, she has decided she is not concerned if he does see her naked." And he catches movement in the corner of his eye quick enough to look away before he really sees anything as she heads out to dress again.

But still worth another stint too close to the shower head. And Chrono didn't grasp why Signum would say something quite so obvious. Not that the pain on his scalp and shoulders helped him think, nor that he's actually trying to think. The possible tangents attendant to figuring out what Signum meant by telling him that are completely unhelpful and so Chrono didn't go there.

She'd fully dressed by the time he got out. In her new black uniform like his own, with its concealing longcoat and baggy pants. For that, for the designer who'd made them as unisex as Bureau uniform usually gets, Chrono was grateful.


	8. Devil in the Details

**Devil in the Details**

One thing about being a special forces team: There's a lot more downtime than might be expected. They exist for equally special problems, after all. That suited for now, with training to do. Still...

Signum rolled her neck. Though constructs, the Wolkenritter were better copies of humans than most, which came with its downsides. Familiars didn't get cramps, but Signum was developing one somewhere between her shoulder blades. This was her third training exercise of the day and the Bureau was apparently quite serious about establishing a regimen that would test even her limits.

Levantine came up and she took a step back, moving with the blow and absorbing its force before she'd even realized she was under attack. Reverse, left cut, backhand with her armored vambrace. Lights out. Though technically far more practiced at killing people than subduing them alive, she still had plenty of practice judging the exact amount of force and where to best apply it to knock out a human being.

She heard a sigh, then Chrono's voice. "Standard simulator opponents aren't a match for them, let's not spend another two hours proving it. Again. Rapier: Knock it off. We're not doing it over."

Signum was almost disappointed; testing skills she still regarded as rusty held a lot of appeal for her. But they would be working again tomorrow.

Chrono walked them through the debrief. He was not generous in his praise as Hayate was, though he did praise them by making a point to note their performance was superior in many ways to anyone else he'd ever worked with. He also criticized them; fairly, about the things they had genuinely not yet learned to do as well as they needed. That surprised them. Fair criticism was something that had been in short supply during their lives, even with Hayate.

Then, almost beyond their ability to comprehend, he asked them for their own criticism of how he'd handled the first two exercises. That _never _happened, even with Hayate.

"If you're going to go all stuffed-fish on me every time I do this," Chrono began, then sighed. "Look. This training isn't about just you. To be an effective commander I need to know what my people can do, how they think, how they react under stress, how they work together. I need to know this so that I can employ them to best effect in the field." It was standard, right out of his OCS courses, but that didn't make it not true. "I need them to think I'm using their skills properly. Or things don't get done the way they should be and bad things happen."

Zafira's lips twitched into a grin. "They can't demote you from owning the Book, Chrono, no matter how much we might disobey you."

Chrono nodded. "No. And you all won't let me die. But that doesn't mean much to people outside this team that we might be called upon to defend. So start talking."

The Wolkenritter looked at each other again. It _almost_ made Chrono laugh at how reluctant they were to go first. But eventually Signum stepped up to do it.

* * *

Shamal sighed. She'd hoped to speak to Chrono alone, before lights out that night, but Zafira was lounging against his bunk already, while Chrono did some paperwork; lying on his back in his bunk to do it, a sight Shamal found bizarre but something that most Navy mages learned to do early due to lack of personal working spaces. "Zafira, if you-"

"It is my job," the wolfman rumbled, "to protect him from everyone. Including you." Shamal sighed again and stepped out of the compartment, going to her own room.

"I'm not being told something here. Even by you." Chrono said, giving Zafira a look that outlined exactly how unacceptable Chrono found that.

Zafira winced. "You remember Vita's 'incomprehensibly Belkan Knight' statement? Shamal was about to be incomprehensibly Belkan Knight. And also uncomfortably so."

Chrono banished his paperwork to wherever completed paperwork went and rolled onto his side, then sat up. "You know that's not enough of an explanation."

Zafira's head fell, chin resting against his collarbone. "You're not married, or attached. She's a Knight of the opposite sex and you are her master. She is at your service." He didn't add any emphasis or otherwise go further along spelling it out.

The sharp intake of breath indicated Chrono'd figured it out regardless. "She has to make that offer, doesn't she? To everyone. You would have had to make it to Hayate, too."

"I did." Zafira replied. "But she was too young to understand it, and we have had much practice at being oblique. I was lucky, I suppose. Hayate could be a little handsy."

Chrono winced, his eyes shutting. "Nobody's perfect," he whispered, to himself rather than Zafira if the wolfman was any judge. Chrono's eyes opened again. "Shamal will try again. She has to. What about Signum? Vita? Do _you_ have to?"

"I suspect Signum already did and you didn't notice." Was that a grin or grimace on Chrono's face? Zafira wasn't sure. He didn't ask, just continued. "Vita's apparent age means she would not be expected to. And as I said, only the opposite sex. I won't."

Chrono held his head in his hands briefly. "This is all kinds of fucked up." The statement wasn't delivered in the tone Zafira had expected. Not resigned, or angry, or even upset. Chrono instead was stating a fact. His head came up again. "I'll go deal with it, then."

"You're sure?" Zafira also stood up. Door-to-door escort was a part of being master of the Book. Assuming he didn't get an escort beyond the doors.

"Can't make it go away by wishing." Chrono replied, using a aphorism learned from his mother in her more military guise. He stepped across the hall, then one door up, and lightly rapped on it.

Vita answered the door. No Barrier Jacket, but Graf Eisen in hand. The Wolkenritter had not taken the news of Hayate's probable assassination well and were back into paranoia mode when it came to Chrono's safety and their own safety. "What's up?"

"I need to talk to Shamal." Chrono said softly.

Vita stepped aside, with a nod to Zafira, who decided to stand his watch outside the door. Chrono stepped past Vita and paused. "Can I borrow a bit of your bunk?"

"Sure." Vita said, nonplussed, watching as Chrono sat down across from a sitting Shamal. It wasn't very comfortable, you had to lean forward on the bunks, but...he was bringing himself down to her literal level. Not a deep interpersonal trick, but one apparently done from heartfelt feeling rather than manipulation. "Should I be here for this conversation?"

"You're not as young as you look." Chrono replied. "Go or stay, your choice. Shamal, you had something to say to me?"

Vita shut the door and remained while Shamal appeared to weigh her options. Chrono had clearly been told _something_ by Zafira, or he wouldn't have come. So...just say it straight, she guessed. "Will you be requiring companionship tonight?"

"When you put it that way," Chrono's gaze was briefly unfocused, not seeing Shamal herself, "it sounds so much better." He focused again. "No, Knight of the Lake. I will not. You need not ask again. Not because I disdain you, but...you offer yourself as a plaything. And I fear my reaction to treating someone as such..." Chrono trailed off a moment. "You are graceful, beautiful, lethal, no one's toy. Were I to treat you as such, then death would be the least of what I deserved for my arrogance."

Chrono bowed his head briefly. "By your leave, Knight."

"Yes," Shamal said faintly, watching with something between reverence and confusion as Chrono left the compartment again.

"That," Vita observed softly, "was a lot more classy than I expected."

* * *

"You didn't sleep." Zafira said. "Chrono, you know this can't happen again."

Chrono smiled faintly. "Sometimes there are not enough hours in the day." His eyes closed briefly, tight, and he shook his head. "Relax, Zafira. I'm fine. It won't happen again."

Zafira didn't appear convinced. "Why?"

"Reading, writing. Letters." Chrono sighed. "You know of course what Belka thought of you."

"Demons. Monsters. The only genuine strategic threat to the existence of the Empire." Zafira replied, sounding genuinely amused. "It wasn't completely inaccurate."

"When the Empire killed itself, the Bureau saved what little it could. You were remembered, even blamed occasionally. Still are. So considering the ethnic breakdown today is about fifty-fifty between Belkan and Midchildan, Belkan cultural tradition of making you into villains is part and parcel of Bureau culture too." Chrono smiled slightly. "It's a little gentler about these things than Belka was. Some of the older combat reports are declassified information. People know you didn't have a choice. So a villain, an awe-inspiringly powerful and destructive villain, but in your own way as much a victim as everyone else."

He gestured to the hologram in front of him, showing a written page. "When people talk about the corrupting power of the fear of death, or the terrible ends of a lust for power, mentioning the Book of Darkness is almost mandatory. There are a lot of stories in a lot of mediums out there that mention the Wolkenritter. I grew up with some of them. There's just one minor issue." Chrono started grinning for some reason.

Zafira eyed Chrono curiously. "And that would be?"

"When I worked out the transfer papers and you were all enlisted or commissioned in the Navy, you became naturalized citizens of the Time-Space Administrative Bureau. The use of a Bureau citizen's likeness in fiction without their permission is a crime and entitles them to punitive damages." Chrono's grin turned malicious. "There are, by my count, two current holo series airing or still buyable, two movies one of which is in development and one still available for purchase, four novel series currently in print, and two individual novels in print, that feature the Wolkenritter. The producers and distributors of which now owe you money. The Wolkenritter could become quite wealthy in the near future."

The wolfman turned to look at the door, where Signum, Shamal, and Vita had appeared since they were aware of the conversation from the Wolkenritter's mental link to each other. "You're serious," Zafira said to Chrono, despite not looking at him.

"Why do you think I was up all night reading and writing letters? I've been sent several offering me payoffs to use whatever influence I have over you, several others asking for permission to use _my_ likeness, and a few that wanted to know about terms of settlement." Chrono replied, still grinning maliciously. "I bothered to note who wanted what and sent the lists to you. You may want to pay special attention to the ones who offered me payoffs. "


	9. Face of the Enemy

There was a derp. Progress was lost. Frustration happened. TOR was played. Hopefully forward motion has resumed.

A forced conclusion: these are not the same Wolkenritter I typically work with. They haven't had over a decade of Hayate to make them seem calm and normal, and as a result they're more like they were in A's: alien, somewhat mysterious, prone to sudden violence. They're also a lot more casual about death and combat than they would be had they stayed with Hayate longer. Chrono's attitudes play a part as well.

**Face of the Enemy**

_Nothing is better left buried_. It was the motto of Air Force Investigations. It was, Tiida reflected, of questionable personal truth, but it was for the organization at least and in the end it was the organization that made possible most of the good done. Still...

He'd been followed for the last two days. A brunette, pretty cute but not really his type. No Device, but, well, he'd had a girlfriend once whose Device Storage Mode was as a ring for a rather intimate piercing. Just because it wasn't visible didn't mean it wasn't there.

So for the last two days he'd kept a very careful routine. Making it easy to follow him, easy to think he was completely oblivious, and easy to lead her into a convenient trap when the time came. His plan came apart, though. She was in the hall outside his office.

She hadn't come through the security checkpoint at the front of the building, either. Which was when Tiida realized that he had a serious problem. You didn't break into a Bureau facility and not trip any alarms in the process for the hell of it. Before her job could have been any kind of surveillance or to try and mug him or god knows what. Now, though, she was clearly not surveillance. Assassination or theft. Panic button time.

"Chrono." He exited the building quickly, but somehow didn't lose her.

"Harlaown here. Go."

"I've got a tail. She managed to get past security twice without being seen. I've got good reason to believe she's here to shake me down or kill me." Tiida said. "Now would be a good time to turn up."

"Copy. Advance team in thirty seconds. Rest as able."

The street was suddenly empty as he looked up again except for himself, some nice old granny, and one other pedestrian who looked completely disinterested. His tail was nowhere in sight, but his subconscious wouldn't shut up. It screamed at him that he was not safe, that he was in mortal danger here, though he couldn't see why.

Which was when the granny tried to gut him with long, metallic talons.

His Device, a pistol-like one named Silver Mirage that he habitually carried ready-to-use at his hip, was watching out for him. "**Shield.**"

As the shield faded away he had Silver Mirage out, pointed at her head. "That wasn't very nice, lady."

"Little fool. Tell me how this story ends-" Before she could brandish her claws, she was hauled from her feet by someone behind her and thrown into a wall. And through it all, she could see Tiida Lanster's face.

He had the most annoying grin she'd ever seen. Through the ringing in her ears, she could hear him. "That's a really good question! No, don't get up, we should all sit down with you and discuss it." That _voice_. So disgustingly perky and eager. A moment ago he'd been clearly terrified. Now he was mocking her.

"Your wolf won't help." She switched back to the brunette again.

_His_ wolf. Zafira hadn't had that happen in a couple thousand years. He was used to being recognized almost immediately, and even when that didn't happen nobody took him for a common familiar. He decided he didn't appreciate not being recognized. "So soon they forget. Not even a decade yet."

The woman tried to stab Zafira in the chest. She was fast, even by Wolkenritter standards, but artless. Sloppy. An ambush predator, someone who lived for first and only strikes. She didn't have much to fall back on if that was not an option.

Her effort to gut him was easily deflected. Zafira caught her wrist and applied what should have been sufficient pressure to break it. It didn't break, and a moment later she managed to somehow tear the hand from his grip and tried to impale him. His hands were out of position, but he was a Wolkenritter; he still dodged three of the five talons seeking to kill him. One grazed his side. One punched into his stomach, through where his intestines would be. It would have crippled a human and most familiars as well.

Zafira was one of the best combat constructs ever created, and found his injury to be a minor annoyance. Pain that would have left a familiar and most humans unable to function only made him angry. Bureau regulation specified that the use of lethal force was acceptable if lives were at stake and the other side was willing to go there. She thought he was a familiar and had been trying to kill him as if he was one. So Zafira backhanded the woman hard enough to have caused a human's feet to have left the ground and snapped their neck.

It knocked her sprawling, but her neck didn't break. Her head didn't even rotate much, and Zafira thought he might have injured a finger. "Is your skull made of metal or something?" the wolfman demanded angrily. He made to leap on her, but she was already scuttling away, climbing to her feet at the same time, and running. A stunned pedestrian flew out of the way as she pushed through them, her appearance changing twice more before she rounded a corner and was gone.

"Zafs!" Tiida sounded more than a little worried. "Dammit, you're bleeding all over the sidewalk. Hold still."

The wolfman tried to stop him. "Please, it's not as bad as it looks."

_Shamal, check him out. Zafira, do what the man says._ They'd felt the presence of Chrono over the link only a few times, and it was to Zafira at least still a marvel. He'd touched many minds down the long years, but few of them had the utter surety of Chrono Harlaown when he fought. In a way, it was breathtakingly simple. Chrono _always_ had a goal and a list of exactly what needed to be done to accomplish it. Thorough and...clean, somehow. Zafira had touched minds like this before, but they had belonged to monsters who he would have struggled to call human. He could think that now, but it would have been an insult worth a knight's life were they still his masters.

And such concern over his physical well-being, it was...perhaps a little silly, even if killed Wolkenritter were exceptionally poor at staying that way. Dying, however, hurt quite a lot in Zafira's experience. And Chrono wanted to spare him, spare them all, the pain if it could be avoided. Zafira had had masters who would have gone for the purely tactically efficient route and had the Wolkenritter kill themselves after any significant injury, as reincarnation was quicker than healing up. He appreciated the gesture.

"He'll be fine in a few days. Fit for light duty now." Shamal reported after a few moments.

Chrono looked skeptically at her, and she felt a gentle probing over the mental link. He accepted her answer after a moment and turned to Tiida. "Okay. Captain, what happened?" The two were technically ranked equal, if anything Tiida probably had date of rank seniority.

"She was a shifter. Somebody in security probably did a wave-through for someone they thought they recognized, like a colossal idiot. Not even sure it's a she. I saw at least four separate changes." Tiida replied. "I don't think there's much point in pursuit. Could look like anyone by now."

Chrono muttered a curse. "All right. Stay with us. If somebody with shapeshifter magic wants you dead I just so happen to have the only people who can't be imitated effectively because they're mentally linked."

"An excellent point." Tiida said. "Let's get out of here before we get shanked by a schoolboy or something."

* * *

"Captain," Chrono and Tiida chorused to Muhammad al-Faddil, and then..."Colonel!" Tiida added, surprised to see Colonel Felmann, the Air Force's equivalent of Muhammad. "Sir." Chrono added himself.

"Unknown Twenty-Seven. You're lucky, Lanster." Felmann said, surprisingly tonelessly. "She's killed two people in the Saint Church this year."

"Unknown Twenty-Seven. Always female. Always the same height and rough build." al-Faddil said. "We initially thought she was just a poor study with illusion magic, but during her escape from one of the Saint Church murders she actually changed while in a Struggle Bind." Chrono's eyebrows went up. Those nullified powers in use, including illusion and shapechanging magic. He'd used it exactly that way during the Book of Darkness incident.

al-Faddil smiled at that reaction. It was a shame Chrono was such a good field mage; he was smart enough to go all the way with Naval Counterintelligence. But it would waste his many other talents. "Good with the insertion. Bad with the exit strategy, but learning it appears. Our current theory is she uses technical means to change her appearance."

"Sir. You can do that?" Tiida asked.

"Somebody can." Felmann's lack of tone was apparently normal for the man. The Wolkenritter were watching him carefully because of it. People who wore their lack of human emotion on their sleeve were not an unfamiliar subject to the Wolkenritter, and they had plenty of examples to show why such people needed close attention. "You said she demonstrated strength and resilience outside human norm."

"I should have killed her." Zafira confirmed. His decision to make the attempt had been made within the bounds of Bureau regulations regarding the use of lethal force. He saw little reason to pretend he'd done anything else. It apparently unsettled some of the people involved that the wolfman had calmly and rationally made a decision to kill someone, but Chrono approved. And in the end, his approval was the only one that really mattered to Zafira. "I've hit metal walls that had more give than her face, sirs."

"Combat Cyborg." Felmann said decisively. "We'll get you clearance for that."

* * *

Signum regarded the Midchildan night sky quietly. It was a holographic representation of course, here. The Book's name explained much of her fascination with memorizing the night sky of every world she'd ever visited, but she now had cause to wonder why that name was chosen.

"You're thinking." Vita said from somewhere behind her.

"What happened today. Zafira tried to kill a woman and Chrono took it in stride." Signum replied.

"He cited regulation, chapter and verse. Chrono wouldn't have tried to kill her himself, sure. But Zaf's decision was made in both the letter and the spirit of the law." Vita was not amused. Chrono was their master, and a good one in her opinion; he was not to be questioned so openly. "What's the issue?"

"He would never have done that with Hayate still leading us." Signum said softly. "We are changing, again, Vita. I thought with Hayate, perhaps we would stop."

Vita shook her head. "Hayate wanted us to be something, something in her head. She was gentle about it. She may not have even realized she was doing it. But being who our mistress wants us to be is familiar territory. Chrono wants us to be _us_ and he'll work with whatever that turns out to mean. Zafs knows who he is still. Nobody tries to bend wolves to their will the same way they do people. The rest of us are just going to have to figure it out. Again."

Signum regarded Vita as though the smaller knight had just confessed she was plotting Chrono's murder. It had been perhaps two and a half weeks, and to hear Hayate assessed this way...

But that was familiar too. As respectful of the living as they were to their masters, they were forever pragmatic about assessing the dead. Still...Hayate probably deserved more than that. Better than that. Signum would have to think on it further.


End file.
